Why JD.com Needs Those Cooperations With Baidu, WeChat & Toutiao

Baidu is the latest company JD.com is cooperating with on mobile. Bloomberg:

Under the arrangement, users browsing for product information on Baidu’s mobile search app can now access a dedicated section to buy items directly from JD, China’s second-largest e-commerce provider. By encouraging users to stay within its app and make purchases, the search giant can glean valuable data on its customers’ preferences.

Chinese B2C e-commerce website JD.com and social media content platform Toutiao.com announced that the two parties have reached a strategic deal to work together to launch a “JD-Toutiao program”.

Toutiao’s 550 million users will be able to enjoy the e-commerce services provided by JD in their reading scenes; meanwhile, JD will gain another top traffic portal on the mobile Internet to peddle its online sales.

​JD.com is building out a strong (and costly) logistics infrastructure, but the company lacks a strong mobile destination. Hence, the online retailer needs cooperations with WeChat, Baidu, Toutiao and other mobile strongholds.

This is perfectly fine for selling stuff online (go where the people already are). But it remains to be seen wether JD.com can build services and differentiated shopping experiences on top with this positioning. (think Amazon Prime and the likes)